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Black Puddings

A blood sausage made with grits, hog blood, spices, herbs, and hog gut.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Marjoram and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Black Puddings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the grits in water for 30 minutes, then drain and place in a clean tub or large pan.

  2. Kill the hog and save 2 quarts of blood, stirring it until cold.

  3. Mix the cold blood with the grits and stir well.

  4. Season with salt, cloves, mace, and nutmeg, then mix in chopped herbs to taste.

  5. Dice the hog leaf and clean the gut, tying one end.

Fill and cook

  1. Fill the gut with the mixture, adding fat as you go, filling it three-quarters full.

  2. Tie the other end and prick the sausages with a pin.

  3. Boil in a kettle of water for 1 hour, then remove and lay on clean straw.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Marjoram + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Winter savory + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together780 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Winter savory + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  4. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Nutmeg + winter savorytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Grits
Provides the bulk and starchy body that holds the filling together as it sets.
Hog blood
Binds the mixture and sets firm when cooked, giving the pudding its dense texture.
Hog fat
Adds richness and moisture, keeping the cooked filling from drying out.
Hog leaf
Adds soft fatty pieces that break up the texture of the filling.
Cloves, mace, and nutmeg
Add warm aromatic spice that flavours the pudding.

The step that matters

Stirring the blood until cold. Blood left to stand begins to clot. Stirring while it cools keeps it fluid so it mixes evenly with the grits and gives a smooth, consistent filling.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, nutmeg, winter savory, marjoram, thyme):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Sagefits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, nutmeg, winter savory, marjoram, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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